We're starting a reader poll to include as an ongoing feature in the magazine. Here's the first question:

What's the most allergy-friendly restaurant you've been to, and what made the experience so great?

Please keep answers brief, and be sure to include the location of the restaurant. Edited responses will appear in the Spring 2006 issue.

We'll be crediting responses with your first name/city/province, so please also include this information. If you'd rather not post this info to the board, send it to me (with your poll response) in a pm.

Susur in Toronto. We went there for our office Christmas party and someone from the restaurant called a few days ahead of time to check if there were any food allergies in our party. We were asked again if there were any food allergies when we arrived at the restaurant, and the servers knew every last ingredient in every dish, down to minute detail.

There must be more of you out there who have had good restaurant experiences. Come on, don't be shy. Given how hard it is to find truly allergy-aware restaurants, I'm sure everyone would appreciate hearing some success stories!

The absolute best experience came from a little place called The Ice Box in Port Colborne, Ontario. It is a little family-owned fast-food/ice cream restaurant with a mini-putt course out back. The owner has a niece that is peanut-allergic. When we played a round of mini-putt, they wiped my peanut-allergic son's club before they handed it to him. After we played golf, we ordered soft ice cream cones. They already knew the cones and ice cream were safe. To be doubly safe, they donned disposable gloves, opened a new package of cones and wasted a giant blob of ice cream to make sure everything was uncontaminated before they served by son's cone. Unfortunately, the last time we were there, the restaurant was up for sale

We had an excellent experience at Milestone's in Vancouver in August 2004, and a member of my support group just wrote me that she also had an excellent experience in the new Ottawa Milestone's. I can provide more info if you like.

There must be more of you out there who have had good restaurant experiences. Come on, don't be shy. Given how hard it is to find truly allergy-aware restaurants, I'm sure everyone would appreciate hearing some success stories!

We had a good experience at Smitty's (pancake house) on Chain Lake Dr in Halifax, NS. We had eaten there with our son quite a few times before we were aware of his allergy. (My son is now 3.) The first visit to Smitty's after his diagnosis, we advised the waitress of his peanut/treenut allergy, and I asked would she ensure the head cook is aware. She agreed and she wrote his allergy alert on the order pad. Then the head cook came out of the kitchen to speak with us. She explained they would cook our son's food separately on a just-cleaned grill, to ensure it wasn't in contact with other food. She explained the ingredients in the whipped cream (he loves the strawberry-waffle thingy). She then explained the pancake batter is not from scratch, it's boxed, and she invited me to read the ingredients on the box. We read it together, the cook and I, and I was satisfied. She double-checked with me, was I ok with the ingredient "spices", I said yes I 'm ok with that. Needless to say, we support Smitty's. Thankfully they serve more than waffles!

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